SAO: Broken
by Jason22274
Summary: Sequel to Death Wish. Asuna was finally free to find Kirito, or was she?
1. Captive

**Major update: 4/29/16**

"Good morning, Titania."

The first words heard outside of SAO's imprisonment was from a man she had hated almost from the moment she met him. Definitely within five minutes of talking to him all those years ago.

Even after four years she would recognize that voice anywhere. He hadn't tried to change it. Even if the form was different, dealing with Kayaba had taught her to never trust what she saw.

Sugo was a creep, to be blunt. She didn't know how no one else saw it. It wasn't just the superior attitude, which would have annoyed Asuna to start with. It was the malice he tried to hide beneath a fake smile. That was how he was at age nine, four years her senior. Telling her parents anything that age was mostly disregarded as her simply being shy around a new boy.

After a month of wanting nothing to do with him with no sign of her parents understanding, she accepted the situation. As much as possible she ignored his presence when his folks were near, or worse, the year he spent with the Yuuki family as his parents were in America for business.

When he hit puberty he went from malicious to out right dangerous. If he forced himself on her, which she couldn't discount as a possibility, she was afraid he could somehow make it look as if she had asked for it. Asuna got very good at being sure an adult was around. He was so good at playing innocent and history had taught Asuna that getting the adults to see behind the mask was impossible.

The warrior jumped into a fighter's crouch. Sugo knew her from before entering SAO. She wasn't that frail girl anymore.

Always keeping an eye on him, Asuna looked over where she was. As she had known the moment she touched her ears this was another virtual world. A giant tree and a bird cage? A well appointed bird cage, but a cage none the less. The symbolism wasn't lost on her.

Sugo shook his head. "Titania, my love," he started. "You don..." he finished, as Asuna sprang forward, driving her knee into his gut and delivering an elbow to the back of his skull in a single fluid motion, wanting to drive home exactly the caged beast he had before him.

He was no Heathcliff. He didn't have the reflexes of a fighter. A fighter confident of his immortality wouldn't have reacted at all. A fighter who knew he was mortal would have been able to put up at least a slight defense. His reflexes were only fast enough to flinch.

He was immortal however, and unlike Heathcliff he didn't get pushed by the impacts. After a second to realize what had just happened, he laughed. He had obviously expected her as she had been before entering the game. The laugh was more nervous than humorous.

"That was foolish My Queen," he said.

Without further word from him her body stopped moving, at least of her own volition. Moving with a will of its own she stood up and slowly spun so Suko could see all sides of her. She could physically feel his eyes raping her. Instantly her need to fight her way free became a need to kill him.

"Titania, you've changed," he said with amusement, his voice showing less of the shock from before as he demonstrated his absolute control over her. "You were never so assertive. Did life in that barbaric game affect you so badly?"

The game _had_ changed her. Little did Sugo know how "assertive" she had become, as he put it. The thought of killing someone had never come so easily to her as it did now. If he had even a slight inkling of what was running through her mind he'd never let her move on her own again.

"Why do you keep calling me by that name?" she asked coldly, a bit surprised her mouth worked.

"Because you are Oberon's queen. And I, of course, am Oberon."

She couldn't help but snort at his stupidity. "Your queen, huh?"

Walking up, he ignored her glare. "Oh, you are definitely my queen, in both this world and the real one." Reflexively Asuna took a step back as he entered her personal space, then paused as she realized he had allowed her to move again. She thought about attacking him, but there was no point. She wouldn't hurt him, and he would simply take control again to rub in how little power she had.

"Oh, that face! So angry. I have looked forward to seeing those angry eyes of yours again, and they are more fierce than ever. The AI I had running that avatar could never match this." Sadly, she could tell it really was exciting him. "I love seeing you fight back with it, even knowing you cannot win."

Fight back? If simply looking at him made him use those two words while he held her motionless he was truly pathetic.

Some of the disdain in her eyes must have registered. He backhanded her in sudden anger, or tried to as her reflexes went into play, blocking the attempt and retaliating with an elbow to his ribs.

That was as far as she got, of course. Once again her body stopped, and returned to a standing position. "You think you can look down on _me_?" he yelled. "I _own_ you."

He stopped and smiled, his composure returning quickly, as a thought occurred to him. "Let me show you."

Once stationary, her avatar began to slowly dance in a sensual manor. A style she wouldn't do for anyone except for Kirito in the most private of settings.

There was no point in saying anything. Any show of shame would encourage him, and showing him her anger would result in the same. Her very silence would tell him what she thought of him and his sad attempt to break her pride.

After a few minutes of her dancing Sugo smiled smugly. "Give it time Titania. I have waited four years for you. I can wait a few weeks until you to accept your place," he said. Seeming tired of her dancing he released her, as he turned and left.

For all the control he seemed to have, the door used an antiquated numerical keypad. She couldn't see what he had typed however, which again proved he had administrative level control over this world. Still, why have a code at all? So others could access the cage? It was the only explanation she could think of.

He had admin privledges, that was obvious. He had gone so far as to call this reality "his" world. That could mean he was in charge of this VRMMO, every bit as powerful in this world as Kayaba had been in his. The difference is Kayaba had taken a passive roll in SAO for the most part. At least when it concerned her Sugo was going to be much more active.

Another thing he said bothered her. "Oh, you are definitely my queen, in both this world and the real one."

He couldn't have married her, could he? The law required that she say "I do," which she obviously could not. She couldn't help but shudder. Whether he had legally married her or not didn't matter. He thought of her that way. What had he done to her physical body. What had he done to her avatar if he had used an AI to control it. What was he going to do now that she was nominally the one in control of it?

Shaking off the fear, anger, and revulsion, those thoughts caused, she looked over her new prison as a distraction and some thin shred of hope of finding a way to escape.

A gaudy, oversized bed was the prominent piece of furniture. It didn't take much to guess why that was there. A desk and a set of table and chairs finished off the meager furniture. The chairs all looked purposely uncomfortable, leaving the bed the only pleasant option, physically.

He really was pathetic.

Looking outside the cage she saw that many of the branches had trails grooved into the top, forming a network of paths for people to walk. The tree's trunk was huge. The Town of Beginnings probably could have fit within, but most impressive was the castle on top. From her perspective she guessed it was about twenty stories and just as wide as the trunk that supported it.

Looking downwards she saw a city. It was more distant than the castle above her, so catching details was difficult, but using the trunk as reference it was probably one-third the size of the ninety-eighth floor of Aincrad, maybe a bit smaller.

Judging by the rising smoke the city was in ruins, large white giants, big enough to be seen despite the distance, was walking among the shattered buildings. Some were swatting at something she couldn't see, apparently in combat.

The last thing to assess was herself. Looking into the mirror she was surprised by what she found. It was her, but it wasn't. She was older. Was this what she looked like IRL now? It had been four years in the game, and in that time avatar had never aged. With a change in worlds perhaps Sugo had updated her avatar to match her appearance. Honestly that surprised her. She always thought he liked young girls. Very young.

She also took in that she wasn't human. Along with the ears she had already found, she had light gossamer wings, so thin she could see through them. They hung down without any control. At first she would have taken them as a cloak. Sugo's avatar had been a fairy, so this wasn't exactly a surprise. It was curious. What was their point of wings? Could she control them somehow? It seemed likely. Having them just for looks didn't make any sense.

This was a new game. How much, if any, of the game mechanics had remained the same as SAO?

The first thing that followed that question was inevitable: would dying here kill her in the real world? Not likely. Sugo wanted her to remain for his sick pleasure. So even if her avatar could die, it was likely to respawn within the cage.

If this was a true VRMMO, which it might not be, what were her stats? Did she still have the high agility granted by SAO? It had felt like it during her brief moment to freely attack her tormenter, but they could be the same as her IRL stats and skills.

Taking a moment to sit at the table, the chair even less comfortable than it looked, she attempted to pull up her game menu. She made a swipe of her right hand that had become second nature to bring up the menu, but nothing appeared. It was possible that gaming convention was different. She tried again with her left hand and got the result she expected with the other.

The menu system was identical to SAO, so out of reflex, but without hope, she checked for the log out button that had been missing before and found it remained missing. Again, that was to be expected. He wanted her, and he wanted total control over her.

Checking her stats next she noted that all of them appeared normal and at the level of her previous avatar. Her duel-wield ability was missing. It was a unique skill, so perhaps that was simply not translatable? That was as good of a guess as any she supposed.

With that thought she checked her inventory next. If the skills not used in this world were missing, what about her items? All she saw innitially was errors where the items should have been. Panicked, she scrolled through the copious error entries to see if it was still there.

As a married couple all of Kirito's items not equipped to him had been transferred to her when he had died. That had included Yui's Heart. It was her last real connection to her husband and the idyllic life they shared. It was her most treasured item. Only when she had shut down completely after her fight with the not-Kirito did she not clutch it at night.

With a sense of relief she found it. Clicking on it to prove the pendent was still the same, she was shocked when what formed instead was her dead daughter.

She wasn't dead any longer.

For the second time since killing Heathcliff Asuna cried. This time tears of forgotten joy.

"Mommy!"

* * *

 _Author's Note: I have no idea what the age difference is between Asuna and Sugo (A quick online search came up with nothing), so this is purely a guess. I think it's fairly obvious he is the older of the two, so no matter the difference it fits my storyline. If anyone knows the actual age difference I'll happily change it._


	2. New Content

_Author's note: As of April 29, 2016 a major edit of chapter one was posted worthy of a re-read I think._

* * *

Weaving past the dragons, Leafa made as direct of a route as possible to turn in her quest. The difficulty in this zone was intense, but the rewards made up for it. With it she had already paid for a small piece of property in the Valley of the Butterflies with some of her earnings. It was small, but given the limited amount of land available that plot of land had gone for the cost of a full set of legendary armor.

Now she just needed to make enough to hire an NPC to build a house on it, which is why she was out here.

As a renegade Leafa didn't have any place to call her own. Ever since the ice giants came from below, and not long after that the fire giants, the cities within the ring of mountains had become dangerous. Definitely not a place for starting characters. At any point an entire city could be attacked and caught between the two opposing forces.

In her land she was safe however. Standard mobs and PKers couldn't kill her there. The same rules applied to her as if she was in Sylvain. For some reason the Giants were an exception to the rule, but they weren't interested in anything near the mountains.

Why did she still play? Feeling a small thrill as she performed a barrel roll, narrowly avoiding a gout of fire, she had her answer. Flying was everything. Recon hadn't found it enjoyable however. His timid nature couldn't handle the constant attacks by random mobs and PKers on all sides.

She missed him, oddly enough. They still talked IRL, but in ALO was different somehow, like he was a different person almost. He'd become so much more confident outside the game. Inside it was like he'd never grown up.

Of course, she could go back to sylph territory outside the ring where the quests were simpler. The giants seemed to be ignoring those territories in favor of battling for control of Arun and the world tree.

She could, but beyond the mountains had become a constant war zone between the races. PKing had always been part of the game, but out there it was more brutal. Ever since the salamanders had made that run for the world tree and nearly succeeded the game had become unbalanced.

The salamanders had attacked a meeting between the cait sith and the sylphs, killing both leaders and gaining an incredible amount of power over both territories for a limited time. The amount of money they earned from their taxing of the lands easily equipped an enormous raid group with armor and weapons that would make a god weep.

They cleared the first area of the world tree easily after that, only to be stopped by the door after the guardians. Apparently the door glitched, not unlocking for the raid group. After trying for a half hour the constantly increasing number of guardians overwhelmed the group.

Since they hadn't beaten the tree, the salamanders didn't ascend, but the admins did make a consolatory gesture, giving them the ability to fly twice as far, and only need to rest half as long before they could continue.

After that everyone wanted to become a salamander to gain this new ability, especially Leafa. To try preventing the balance from becoming so skewed the race had become restricted. There was a quest that was needed to be completed first, but the quest disappeared when someone completed it, and a new quest would take its place.

The problem was the quest was always in salamander lands, and they didn't want any new players to join their ranks for many reasons ranging from paranoid to petty. Flying there was a death sentence. Not that the rest of the map was much safer. Using their air superiority they constantly raided the other lands, maintaining the organization they created to make their run at the World Tree.

The other races could have created alliances to keep them in check, but of course they ended up fighting every time they tried. Like the salamanders it was for reasons ranging from paranoid to petty.

Leafa had already been sick of all the politics and infighting. The constant warring with those who should have been allies clinched it.

Of course all of the races made more runs at the tree, but only when the Admins told them the glitch had been fixed. By then the giants had manifested and getting there involved getting past them. It was a mess.

It was possible to become friendly with one side, but that only made the other side hunt you down more vehemently. Leafa didn't understand the system behind it entirely. There were setting in the menu to show where you sat with either side, and some players seemed to have a natural affinity and became friends with them quicker.

Both sides were treacherous however, and friends was a loose word to be using. More like valued tools. Leafa didn't want any part of it. She'd become a renegade to avoid politics and infighting. She wasn't going to jump back into it with NPCs.

The content updates that brought first the ice giants and then the fire giants hadn't even been announced, which was odd. Until these two content updates were always announced well in advance. Leafa was suspicious it was added to stop more attempts at the tree.

Well when one of the giants went down their loot was impressive. Taking one on however was always a group effort of at least ten players. They were tougher than any other NPC in the game except for boss battles, and even then it was close. If they could fly the game would have been impossible.

Thrymm must be the Boss of bosses. Not that anyone had made it to him yet. Sitting at the gate for the world tree, he disappeared regularly inside. With his size he had to crawl to fit through the doors. After an hour he would respawn, sitting at the thrown he had started in.

After turning in the quest with the neutral quest giver, she returned to her passion, trying to clear her mind of everything, especially thoughts of the real world. This was supposed to be an escape from that world. She had tried to use it that way when she first entered, but for the first time since Kazuto died it didn't. After that she had tried to get out the frustrations in the kill quest she had just finished, but again it didn't work.

She decided to give flying another try, but in a different manner. Before she had been sedate, trying to allow the gentle wind in her face to blow away her tears. Now she pushed herself to her top speed. As fast as she could go, faster than any other player, it was possible she'd run into another player before she knew he was there. That left only one direction. Up! Piercing the clouds, she saw the moon above, seeming so close she could touch it.

Yesterday the ones still alive trapped in that game, trapped like her brother, were free finally. Shouldn't their freedom make her happy? Why had it only made her tears return, harder than before? Suku had thought she had finally healed from that loss. It wasn't like her and Kazuto had been that close after all.

Heck, they weren't even really siblings!

Stupid, so stupid. She had to have felt something still. She had put on the gear just to understand him better. She had learned kendo in his stead plus her own to appease their father. She cared. She'd loved her brother even if he had been such a jerk.

Dead for two years now, and still she loved him. Loved him more than she should. Was it all in her head? She tried to convince herself of that again. That perhaps she was only in love with the memory, not the reality. It had to be! After all, he was a jerk, always shirking responsibility to hide in computers.

Well, she couldn't blame him for that now, given her own obsession with them. It was another way to try connecting with him, at least in spirit.

Ten minutes later, the clouds a distant memory below her, and she began to fall. The landing was going to kill her. Ten minutes of flight, and ten minutes between to recover before flying was possible again. Her wings had reminded her they were going to fail a minute before, but she had ignored them. Too late now. She might as well enjoy the trip back down.

The game's engine hadn't really changed since it started, but it was light years ahead of any other game. It took aerodynamics into account, allowing her to sky dive and direct her trajectory. The Valley of the Butterflies wasn't far. She angled herself in that general direction. If she got close enough she might even respawn on her land.

A distortion appeared above her as she fell. At first she disregarded it as lag until an item fell through it. Glinting black and silver, Leafa was surprised, to put it mildly, to realize it was a rapier. Why would a rapier form from nothing? The game was becoming way too glitchy.

Oh well. Leafa pulled her arms and legs together to make her fall as fast as possible as she aimed for the sword. It had already passed her while she tried to figure out what had just happened.

No matter how aerodynamic she made herself there was no possibility to catch up with it, but she hoped she could get a lock on where it landed. It could be trash to sell, or it could be an epic weapon, which she would also sell, but for a lot more. She had no training in rapier so it would be useless in her hands when compared it to her skill with a katana. If she was extremely lucky the item might be the start of a quest. That could lead to the best rewards from money to gear she could actually use.

Two minutes later she landed the hard way, dying instantly. She was very glad there was no pain in the game, but the fear of seeing the ground approach at terminal velocity was almost worse. It took her a few minutes to recover, which she did while still dead where she was safe.

She had been able to see where the sword landed at least, and it wasn't far from the respawn location. It wouldn't take long to grab it.

As she approached it, she only saw its hilt with the blade completely buried. It had been moving fast, so that wasn't too surprising. Leaning down she grabbed it, preparing to put all of her strength into pulling it out. When she touched the sword she fell backwards in surprise, her eyes wide as the sword became a dull black ball then again into a Katana identical to her own.

The coloring was different however. She thought the blade looked sinister in it's black and silver. If it was a good enough blade she'd put up with it. Picking it up she tapped it once to bring up the item info. She wasn't a blacksmith so she couldn't get all of the information, but she could get its stats and name at least.

"Lament Shadow, hmm?" she whispered to herself. "Well your stats aren't the most impressive, but they're not too bad either." Pausing to think further, she thought about how it changed shape when she touched it. "There's more to you than just stats though."

It was definitely an item to bring to a trusted smith for appraisal.


End file.
